Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Back In the Saddle

Inspired by Fern over at Impervious Surface, I recently tuned up my fourteen year old mountain bike and have set a goal for myself to commute to work on it at least two days a week. I bought my Stumpjumper back in college and it is still as solid as ever, though I rarely ride it off road these days. I looked at some new bikes, and I would love to have this one, or this one, but I just can't justify spending the money right now, plus I still love my old Specialized. The frame and drivetrain are in great shape, but some of the other components were getting tired, and it really needed to be tuned up before I started relying on it to get me to work. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on it, but I did splurge for a nice set of tires, sort of a hybrid trail/road tire that will be perfect for the 12 mile round trip commute. Now if our town would just invest in some decent bike lanes, biking here is sort of like playing Russian roulette.


Listening to: The Be Good Tanyas- Blue Horse

3 comments:

chell-belle said...

hey, I think biking to work is a great way to get some exercise. like there's a meaning to the madness. the hardest part about it for me, though, is that I would only just get warmed up as I was getting there. bike lanes would be nice, too!

Rambling Canuck said...

Good stuff! I recently overhauled my own archaic Specialized...new suspension forks, brakes/cables, handlebars/stem, shifters...now just need new rims. Probably seems ass-backwards, but I love the old Rockhopper frame. Steel, baby!! And it fits me perfectly, so why bother parting with it when it's perfectly good. Plus we've been through so many scrapes together. She's here to stay.

JMH said...

I here ya, I love showing up at my local trailhead (the Cape actually has some decent singletrack) with my rigid Stumpjumper.